Get China ready for the Year of the Dragon 2024

Get China Ready | Preparing your Hospitality Business for the Chinese Tourist in 2024

‘’The global recovery of travel and tourism from the pandemic continues to be impacted by the absence of the world’s largest outbound market, China. The return of Chinese leisure and business travellers, plus Chinese airlines, tour operators and hotel investors, is coveted by destinations on every continent. Many things have changed during Covid-19, and the return of Chinese travellers to airports around the world will herald a new period of transition. Being ‘China-ready’ before the pandemic is not a realistic platform for welcoming back Chinese tourists. Tourism stakeholders must upgrade their market knowledge, their products and their services for the next wave of Chinese tourists.”

Gary Bowerman is Director of Check-in Asia and Founder of Asia Travel Re:Set. And Director of Check-in Asia, an Asia-focused travel consulting & consumer research firm. He is an Asia Travel Analyst for Phocuswright and an Asia Consumer Trends Analyst for Mintel. (2024)

• One in ten of all international travel begins in China.

China is the biggest outbound tourism source market in the world – 116m travellers spent $160 billion in 2019.

There were 116 million Chinese outbound border crossings generating 160 billion US$ spending in 2019. Outbound tourism is no longer restricted by the Chinese government and tourism service providers all over the world are starting to focus on the Chinese market.

So why should you invest in preparing your business for the Chinese market?

• A growing market

The Chinese outbound tourism market is growing rapidly. According to McKinsey, the number of outbound trips from China more than doubled from 2010 to 2019. A growing middle class with more disposable income has also facilitated this increase in Chinese tourists.

• China is the world’s top tourism spender

Chinese tourists tend to spend more. According to survey data compiled by Nielsen, Chinese tourists prioritise “experience” over “cost” and display higher levels of purchasing power than non-Chinese travellers.

Spending by Chinese tourists in Dublin is growing at a much faster rate so far this year than any other key tourism market, new data from MasterCard shows.

The latest MasterCard SpendingPulse report, produced on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities, shows that during the first three months of the year, spending by Chinese tourists in Dublin grew by 18.2% compared to the October to December 2022 period.

This rate of growth in the capital outpaces spending by other key tourist markets such as France, Germany and UK which saw growth during the same period of between 6% to 7%.

• Consumer confidence is growing

Desire for overseas travel has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. With the removal of quarantine & testing requirements in many European countries, this will further encourage more Chinese travellers to the Island of Ireland.

                                  How to get China Ready

The Chinese visitor is vastly different to the traditional recreational holiday maker from the traditional markets of Europe and the USA.

Reasons for travel in China are complex and sophisticated, and trips are very much today’s status symbol in China. There are many distinct kinds of travellers with many distinct levels of experience and expectations for many different reasons.

Understanding Chinese customers from package-tour first timers to “Second Wave” sophisticated self-organised travellers and responding to their demands, communicating readiness, and offering the right kind of services to the right kind of market segment is key to success in this market.

So how do you attract this major market segment and turn Chinese visitors into satisfied customers who go on to recommend your business and destination to friends and colleagues?

The key to success lies in understanding and respecting the unique Chinese culture and their motivations.

         COTRI ‘Get China Ready’ Training Workshops

At the Centre for Competitiveness, (Ireland) we offer a bespoke training workshop that will provide your business with the tools to both attract and appropriately ‘Welcome’ Chinese visitors.

The ‘Chinese Tourist Welcome Certificate’ provides tourism organisations with a solid foundation of key market knowledge to help them maximise the success of their marketing and sales initiatives.

The ‘Get China Ready’ programme offered by CforC is certified by COTRI, (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute), the world's leading independent research institute for Chinese outbound tourism and recognised by Tourism NI, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland.

The Training workshop, supported by Chinese Tutors, helps Hotels, Restaurants, Coach Tour Companies and Tourist Destinations, Activities and Products to position themselves at the forefront of the biggest global outbound tourism source market by understanding the different market segments, adapt products and services and by communicating the special attention given to the market by Chinese tour operators.

It is designed for individual organizations- or groups of enterprises within a destination- and targets Management and Team leaders to develop their awareness and competences so that they can create and manage a special ‘Ireland Welcome’ for the Chinese Tourist.

To find out more about our ‘Get China Ready’ programme, click here, download our flyer or contact us via email at compete@cforc.org or phone 028 9073 7950 / 048 9073 7950 or our Dublin office +353 8 7224 2575